This website is dedicated to my random thoughts on movies. It will contain movie reviews and random musings.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Ranking Hayao Miyazaki

If I
had to pick I’d say that Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki is the greatest
director of animation in cinema history. His last film, The Wind Rises which I
saw at TIFF last year, will go into general release this week. Miyazaki
announced it would be his last film – each of the last few films he made took
longer and longer the complete and he worried that now that he’s in he is 73 he
wouldn’t finish another one. He leaves behind an 11 film resume (and countless
shorts, as well as work in TV and manga) – and each of his 11 films has
something to recommend them – he really did not make a weak film in his career,
although some are obviously better than others. Here is how I would rank his 11
films.

11. The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

Miyazaki’s
debut film is an extension of a television series (which he directed several
episodes for), which itself is an extension of a manga series. The film is an
exciting action film, in which the main character Lupin, a thief discovers the
money he has just stolen from a Monte Carlo Casino are counterfeit, and his
pursuit of the truth leads him to a strange castle in the small country of
Cagliostro. There really is nothing wrong with the film – it is an exciting
film as far as this type of thing goes, with excellent action sequences
(including a wonderful chase sequence). And there are hints at what Miyazaki
would do later in his other films. But if I value it a little lower than his
other work; it’s mainly because it doesn’t much feel like a Miyazaki film. The
other 10 films feel more part of a group, with this one being a very
entertaining outlier.

10. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Kiki is
a young witch, and like all witches, she has to leave home and live by herself
for a year when she turns 13. She flies off to the big city, with her talkative
black cat companion, and while there experiences several crisis while trying to
deal with normal adolescence, and a crisis of confidence. There is nothing wrong
with Kiki’s Delivery Service – it is a beautiful film from beginning to end,
and it tells its story with sensitivity. This is a Miyazaki film aimed more at children
than adults though – everything here is perhaps a touch too simplistic,
everything a little too cute for its own good. I look forward to showing this
to my daughters one day, yet it never quite captures the magic of Miyazaki’s
best work.

9. Ponyo (2008)

Ponyo
is Miyazaki’s version of the Little Mermaid story about a small fish girl, who
wants to see more of the world and ends up bonding with a little boy on land. The
film is rather simple – it has been made to appeal to young children – and yet
there are magical moments in it – not least of which is the wordless opening
sequence, under the sea. The love story between what are basically two five
year olds is a little strange to say the least – and yet Miyazaki makes it feel
genuine. The film is beautiful from start to finish – and shows Miyazaki’s vast
imagination and talent in every frame. If I rank it a little lower than most
Miyazaki films it’s because like Kiki’s Delivery Service it is perhaps a touch
too simple – and yet doesn’t quite have the same magical quality of My Neighbor
Tortoro. It comes closer to Miyazaki’s best – but is still a notch or two
below.

8. Porco Rosso (1992)

Porco
Rosso is a little bit of a transitional film for Miyazaki. Made after two films
made undeniably for children (My Neighbor Tortoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service),
and before his move to darker, more adult fare in Princess Mononoke, came this
film which is somewhat of a blend between the two. It is about Porco Rosso, a
WWI flying ace who flew for Italy, who has been cursed to look like a human
with a pig’s head. The story is relatively simple and straight forward –
between the wars, Porco Rosso makes his living as a solitary bounty hunter of
air pirates, until his supremacy is challenged by an American, and the two square
off. But it’s themes are slightly more mature than that of his previous films –
there is darkness at the edges of Porco Rosso. Porco is a little older than
most anime protagonist – he has been worn down by life, by those lost in the
war, and his grief over them. This is still a relatively simple film –
beautiful animated as always by Miyazaki – but there are signs of where
Miyazaki was going to go next in this film, that make it one of his most
interesting, if not quite one of his best.

7. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Howl’s
Moving Castle looks as beautiful and is as visually inventive as anything
Miyazaki has ever done. The title castle – which as the name implies is owned
by Howl and moves – is one of Miyazaki’s greatest visual inventions, and the
source of never ending discoveries. The story, about a young girl cursed to
look like an old woman, who seeks out the title wizard to try and reverse the
curse, doesn’t quite live up to the best of Miyazaki’s movies. The story seems
more like an excuse to hang his wonderful and exciting animated set pieces on –
and when they come, they are truly awe inspiring. But the best Miyazaki movies
are more than just a sum of great moments – they are about the perfect fusion
of visuals and story, and Howl’s Moving Castle doesn’t quite achieve that
balance. It is still light years better than most animated films you will see
in any given year – but in terms of Miyazaki’s resume, it’s a notch or two
below his best work.

6. Castle in the Sky (1986)

Miyazaki’s
love of flying is on full display is this wonderful animated adventure about a
young boy who saves a girl who is being chased by pirates, the army and secret
agents – and have to race to find a floating castle. As with many of Miyazaki’s
earlier efforts, the story here is fairly straightforward – you know where it’s
going from the beginning, and it never truly surprises you. Having said that,
this ranks among the most beautiful of all Miyazaki movies – and every frame of
the film is filled with invention and something wondrous to look at. Miyazaki
loves inventing strange machines – and the flying contraptions he comes up with
in this film are among his best work. Much of the film is silly – wonderfully
so – as the various bad guys are slapstick caricatures – but they work. It is
only near the end of the film where Castle in the Sky gets a little more
serious – and Miyazaki’s not overly optimistic view of humanity is on display
in the final confrontation in that Castle in the Sky. Miyazaki would go on to
deepen the themes in this film in later, better, more complete films – but for
what it is, Castle in the Sky is still a wonder to behold.

5. The Wind Rises (2013)

Miyazaki’s
last film is his least fantastical – it takes place firmly in the real world,
and although there are some dream sequences, even they do not contain his usual
assortment of magical creatures and machines. Instead, he tells the story of a
Japanese aviation engineer who spends his life making beautiful planes – and
then watches as the Japanese military uses them as death machines in WWII. To
offset this, the film is also a gentle love story between the engineer and the
sickly woman he meets – first as a child and then years later. To some,
Miyazaki wasn’t hard enough on the engineer, who creates flying death machines.
To others, he was a traitor to Japan for calling them too militaristic and
questioning what they did in the war. The fact that he angered both sides
probably means he struck the right balance. While The Wind Rises isn’t the
fantasy masterwork that most of Miyazaki's films are – that doesn’t mean the
film isn’t full of wonderfully animated moments and sequences – the earthquake
and fire in the first act in particular are stunning – or that this film is any
less beautiful than anything else he has ever created. This film is sadder than
most however – a fitting note to go out on for the master animator.

4. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

For a
few of Miyazaki’s movies I have pointed out that there are rather simple – and
that’s true. Perhaps none of his films is as simple and straight forward as My
Neighbor Tortoro, but while I knocked some of the other down a notch or two
because of their simplicity, I cannot do the same to this film. Yes it is
simple – but its simplicity works in its favor. This is a gentle film about
childhood – two sisters with a father who works a lot and a mother in the
hospital, who invent some imaginary creatures to help watch over them (or
perhaps the creatures are real). There is no false drama here, no bad guys, no
action sequences, just a simple film that remembers what it was like to be a
child, and get lost in your own imagination for a while in order to protect
yourself from the world. It is also one of the most beautiful films ever made –
by Miyazaki or anyone else for that matter. While Kiki’s Delivery Service or
Ponyo are perhaps too simple, My Neighbor Tortoro gets the balance between
simple and profound just about perfect. One of the first films I plan to show
my daughters when they gets a little older.

3. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
(1984)

Miyazaki’s
second feature is clearly the best of his early work – a complex film about a
post-apocalyptic world where humanity is threatened with extinction at the
hands of the giant insects that live in the jungle that surround their
kingdoms. It’s been 1000 years since humanity all but destroyed itself – and
the planet – and they have teetered on the brink of extinction since. The story
focuses on Nausicaa, who lives in the Valley of the Wind, one of the few places
still inhabitable by humans. Eventually, she will come into contact with two
different kingdoms – one of whom wants to wipe out the forest and everything in
it, and plans on releasing an ancient spirit to do so – a plan Nausicca is
against. Like Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa is the story of a strong princess at its
core, and also has a serious ecological message behind it. The film’s plot is
complex – but never confusing, and the characters are always interesting. There
really are no bad guys in the film – just people with differing perspectives. As
always, the film is a wonder for the eye from beginning to end –with an amazing
array of insects and flying machines, and some great action sequences. Miyazaki
would take a step towards more childlike films for more than a decade after
making this film – but this is the film that most clearly showed where he was
heading – and it is a great film unto itself as well.

2. Princess Mononoke (1997)

Princess
Mononoke tells an incredibly complex story – set during the dawn of the Iron
Age, which according to the movie is when man and nature started speaking
different languages, and threw the balance of power off. It centers on a
prince, who we see fight a boar monster with the flesh of snakes and win – but
become scarred in the process. He sets out into the forest to discover what
caused such a strange creature – eventually meeting the title character – a
child raised by a wolf god – and a village that is started work in iron – which
gives them one kind of power, while stripping them of their connection with
nature. Princess Mononoke is not a simple film – Miyazaki has always resisted
such simplistic terms as good and evil – and would rather have complex
characters, whose point of view we can understand, even when they are at odds
with ours, and one another. He has also created one of the best looking
animated films ever created. The story is complex, and has moments of shocking
violence – but not in the way some anime is shocking with blood and gore, but
because the violence shocks even the participants in the action. This was the
first Miyazaki film I ever saw – and remains one of the very best.

1. Spirited Away (2001)

Would
Spirited Away get my vote for the best animated film of all time? It just
might. Miyazaki made several great films in his life, but none of them really
come close to me to Spirited Away. Once again, the story seems rather simple at
first – a girl and her parents are on a car trip, when her parent’s actions
turn them into pigs, and the girl becomes a servant at a bathhouse – whose
clients and staff represent pretty much every type of creature you can possibly
imagine – and some you never could. She has her name stolen, and must get it
back, or else she’ll be trapped forever. That’s the story – it’s probably the
most fantastical and inventive of anything Miyazaki has done – but it’s only a
small part of the film’s appeal. The rest of it is the gorgeous animation that
fills every frame with images that would be impossible in live action – even
with the best CGI imaginable. Miyazaki is not afraid to take his time with the
story – in fact he often seems at his best in the film’s quietest moments. If
this isn’t the greatest animated film of all time, it certainly ranks right
near the top of the list – and for me, is easily the best film Miyazaki has ever
made.

About Me

I am an accountant, living in Brantford, ON - and although I am married and have beautiful daughter, I still find time to watch a lot of movies. This blog is mostly reviews of new movies - with other musing thrown in as well.